He played guitar with leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his electric guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the 1950s....

“Honestly, I never strove to be an Edison... The only reason I invented these things was because I didn’t have them and neither did anyone else. I had no choice, really.”

I was watching Mystery (PBS) many years ago. The story was set in England. A character showed up at the estate, saying he was from Wah-KISH-ha, Wisconsin. I'm thinking Wah-KISH-ha? Wah-KISH-ha? Where the heck is Wah-KISH-ha?

Then the guy makes reference to a story he had read in the Milwaukee Journal. {click} OH! {slaps forehead} He's from WAH-ki-shaw!

During a recent visit to Milwaukee, I took my youngest daughter to the Discovery Museum (a science-y showcase of sorts), and came across a long, vaguely interactive exhibit about Les Paul and his guitar wizardry. The Wisconsin folks who put it together were much taken by him. Not without reason, either, from what I could tell.

Years ago (30?), I went to Sam Ash in Paramus to (do something, who remembers? - maybe buy guitar strings), and Les Paul was there playing in front of, oh, maybe 10-15 people.

I asked who he was, and they told me. Even though I played the guitar, and knew what a Les Paul was (way out of my price range then), I didn't know there was a person named Les Paul. He was showing some of his new gizmos, and, of course, a Les Paul.

Oh yeah, he was amazing in person. I just stood there, maybe ten feet from him, and watched in awe. Not my type of music really, but, as a guitarist, you had to be impressed, that's impressed with a capital I.

He seemed pretty old back then, but, I think he's been playing weekly in NY until just recently.

The fact that people, generally, have no idea who this great man was (or who most of the great men were) is all the proof I need that their god-worship is the ultimate sign of their overwhelming ignorance.

Les Paul was a great performer, a visionary, and his influence on popular music is incalculable.

But only a lucky few ever got invited to one of his intimate backstage parties to shed tears of delight as Mr. Paul would prepare and serve four tall glasses of iced tea using nothing but his erect penis.

To a young wannabe guitarist and penis-performer, such as myself, he was nothing less than a god.

Not only was Les Paul a great guitar player and inventor, but one of the great innovators in the popular recording industry.

He conceived, developed and perfected multitrack recording. Without it, many of our popular music stars would never have made the big time.

The Les Paul Mary Ford recording of The World is Waiting For The Sunrise (music by actor Eugene Lockhart, the father of June Lockhart) uses it to great advantage. That recording is also one of the first to feature reverb (distortion) on the electric guitar. Which all of the greats (Hendrix, Clapton, etc., etc.) used to great effect.

Mostly my thought was "lame!" Horrible writing. I suspect Les and Mary may actually have had senses of humor and personalities, but the writers managed to obliterate that.

As to the racial angle, I grew up in Pittsburgh where we had a big Stephen Foster memorial, so I know that kind of thing was commonplace in those days. They sure are boringly white in those clips, but remember that Les had the chops to keep up with Louis Armstrong.

Thawing out (or was that Throwing out)frozen husbands may be another one of those U. of Wisconsin courses not taught to out siders until they marry a Wisconsin resident. Maybe it is like coming in with frozen feet...you stick them in the toilet and flush it, but do it head first.

Wow. If you're a guitar player, this hits home. Les Paul was a huge figure in the guitar world. People across many, many different musical styles, from jazz, to blues, rock/hard rock/metal, country, rockabilly, etc.... you name the genre, he's influenced artists in it.

Les Paul and Mary Ford was a wholesome duet in the days when people liked each other's voices and each other's company.It is sad to realize that they are gone forever and their simple music replaced by the music of drugged out hard rock singers.

A version made for Capitol in 1949 by guitarists Les Paul and Mary Ford was a million-seller. The Beatles recorded a home version on a Grundig tape recorder, sometime in the late 1950s, before they got famous. The Beatles version featured guitars by Harrison and Lennon and vocals from Paul McCartney. Canadian jazz musicians to record the song include Bert Niosi (1946), Peter Appleyard (1957), Ed Bickert (1979), and Oscar Peterson (1980).

Les Paul's version was one of the first electric guitar recordings to feature distortion.

From hearing Clapton and some of the other great guitarists talk about him, I understood that Paul was the consummate technician who could do about everything that could be done on a guitar before anyone else even thought about it.

Alas, Penny, I never had the good fortune to learn at the feet of the master. However, years ago I was lucky enough to bump into Carl Weathers, at a bus stop, and he gave me a one-on-one lesson for only $35, which by funny coincidence was the exact amount of cash I happened to be carrying with me at the time.